Since her death in 1954, Frida Kahlo has become a cultural icon. Frida: Beyond the Myth, on view at the Dallas Museum of Art through November 17, explores her life and her humanity through her own works as well as the art created by the people who knew her best.
Organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, the exhibition is co-curated by Dr. Agustin Arteaga, the museum’s Eugene McDermott Director, and Sue Canterbury, the museum’s Pauline Gill Sullivan Curator of American Art.
“Sue and I worked together, trying to create a narrative that will walk through from her very, very early days as a young girl, four years old, and having pictures from the most important photographers of the 20th century that depict her at very private, intimate moments and also her works and create that way to learn about her life as she was thinking and reflecting on the things that happened to her,” Arteaga said.
The exhibition is comprised of 60 works by Kahlo and her contemporaries, chronicling the events that shaped her life and art. Beginning with her early years, the exhibition showcases the influence of her father, a photographer. Her first self-portrait, a gift for her boyfriend Alejandro Gómez Arias, mimics the European Mannerist painters of the 16th century.
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“We see a Frida that we can recognize for her beautiful face, her beautiful features, but she is looking at the Old Masters at this moment in time,” Arteaga said.
This first self-portrait was painted after a devasting bus accident in 1925 that left her with life-altering injuries. Next to this self-portrait is her drawing of the accident as well as her portrait of Arias.
In 1928, Kahlo asked Diego Rivera to assess her paintings. A year later, Kahlo and Rivera were married. Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to the United States where Rivera had several commissions. The couple spent time in San Francisco, Detroit and New York. Kahlo’s Tehuana dress attracted the attention of children in Detroit, and she adopted 1910 as her birth year because it coincided with the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.
The Scene
“Here we’re going to see how Frida starts transforming herself and we’re going to see very important drawings that start telling us what she is looking at,” Arteaga said.
Following the destruction of Rivera’s controversial Rockefeller Center mural, Kahlo created My Dress Hangs There as a commentary on American’s economic and social hypocrisies.
“She is commenting on everything that is happening in New York,” Arteaga said. “You will see at the bottom; you have all her concerns about the social unrest that is happening because the big crash of the stock exchange.”
“Standing in for her is her Tehuana dress. My dress may be here, but my heart and mind is in Mexico,” Canterbury said.
Kahlo became pregnant several times, but Rivera did not want children. One painting reflects Kahlo’s grief after one of her abortions with her artist palette shaped like a heart.
“It’s almost like ‘These will be my children; my work will be my children.’ This was very disturbing for her,” Canterbury said. “She was particularly sad to lose this particular child.”
To recover from one of the abortions, Kahlo traveled from Detroit to Mexico. Lucienne Bloch, an apprentice of Rivera, took a wistful photo of Kahlo staring out of the train window.
Her relationship with Rivera was complicated, with both pursuing affairs.
“She was okay with him having affairs, but not with her sister,” Arteaga said. “Things didn’t end up well and they divorced for a year and remarried.”
Nickolas Muray, a Hungarian-born commercial photographer, created some of the most striking portraits of Kahlo. Muray and Kahlo met in 1931 and had an affair for a decade. Muray hoped to marry Kahlo, but he eventually realized Kahlo and Rivera would always be connected. His portraits reflect the love and respect between the artists.
“You will see some of his beautiful portraits of her and many of them are the iconic images of Frida Kahlo with ribbons and flowers in her hair,” Arteaga said.
The museum set up a selfie station with a similar white bench and floral background as one of Muray’s portraits.
Even as she enjoyed success, Kahlo’s health deteriorated. In Self-Portrait with Monkey, she includes one of her favorite pets, a monkey. She wears a determined expression on her face and a ribbon in her hair. However, her hair is loose, denoting a physical unraveling. It is a compelling portrait of pain.
“You can see how beautiful this is. You can see a Frida that is completely embellished and secure in herself and you see a little monkey that is also wearing a ribbon of the same color as hers and is looking at us in a frightened way,” Arteaga said.
Kahlo creates still life works as her health declines.
“Some of these works you see here, particularly her still lifes, were created while she was in bed,” Canterbury said. “She let aspects of the things stand in for her or for things that were happening in her life.”
Photographs by Florence Arquin and Lola Álvarez Bravo show the plaster corset she wore, and her leg amputated. Self-Portrait with Loose Hair, painted a year after an unsuccessful spinal surgery, marks the beginning of the end of her life.
“We don’t see that Frida that is beautified, all made-up. You see her hair loose, you see her with that expression that is sad or tired,” Arteaga said. “You see some of that resilience and hope is starting to drain out of her body.”
The exhibition concludes with Naturaleza Viva and a photograph of Kahlo completing the painting from her bed near the end of her life. This final painting features a sun and a moon representing a beginning and end as well as a white dove, perched and seemingly ready to take off into eternity.
Learn more: Dallas Museum of Art
